Traditionally pantomimes open on Boxing Day but many productions have already broken with tradition and opened already. Aladdin for example, the professional show, opened in Nottingham at the beginning of December and continues until mid-January as the poster (one of many in the town) in a shop on Bath Street shows.
One of the features of pantomimes is the audience participation with cries of "Oh no it isn't - Oh yes it is!" and "He's behind you" shouted raucously by hordes of children. A variation of that second cry could well be applied to the second poster in the shop window advertising another pantomime "Beauty and the Beast" for this amateur production by the Ilkeston Theatre Group took place in November. Truly it can be said of this pantomime "It's behind you."
All pantomimes though whether amateur or professional have their origins in Mummers' plays which date back about a thousand years and show the fight between good and evil. In every pantomime there's always the happy ending with good always triumphing over its adversary.
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